Montecristo Construction Issues

[RobBooth]

I love the flavour profile of Montecristo cigars yet I seem to encounter bad construction issues with these sticks more than with any other brand specifically in the smaller vitolas. I've got a box of 5s and 4s and so far, all of them have been plugged (3 out of 3 Monte 4s and 3 out of 3 Monte 5s). I've just given up on the 5 I lit after 5 minutes of something akin to trying to suck a golf ball through a hose pipe. Never had a problem with any of my 2s and fingers crossed the Media Coronas I've got will be good but it's so disappointing especially given the 4s were bought as a box of top graded sticks.
I don't think I'll be buying any more (edit : smaller) Monte's though.
Anyone else have similar issues?

[PeeJay]

Nope

[SHAMZ84]

No had a 5 and 3 recently and seemed to fine...both were presents... So not sure where they were bought from

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[ValeTudoGuy]

Nope, always amongs the best sticks i have.

When you say "top graded" what do you mean?

[PeeJay]

Nope, always amongs the best sticks i have.

When you say "top graded" what do you mean?

laughing.jpeg EMS?

[RobBooth]

Nope, always amongs the best sticks i have.

When you say "top graded" what do you mean?

Bought from a supplier who checks their boxes for quality and grades them, selling at different price points. They're lovely looking and smelling sticks (4s), just hard work. The 4s I did finish but two of the 5s I've given up on and binned.

[RobBooth]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27219[/ATTACH] EMS?

nope

[PeeJay]

Bought from a supplier who checks their boxes for quality and grades them, selling at different price points. They're lovely looking and smelling sticks (4s), just hard work. The 4s I did finish but two of the 5s I've given up on and binned.

So you've got a seller who opens boxes then grades the contents and prices them accordingly? Never heard of that, I wonder if Cabanas have.

[ValeTudoGuy]

Bought from a supplier who checks their boxes for quality and grades them, selling at different price points. They're lovely looking and smelling sticks (4s), just hard work. The 4s I did finish but two of the 5s I've given up on and binned.

Sounds like they need to up their grading skills. Im going to make a huge assumption here and guess they grade by looks.....

Perhaps im in a minority here but I think grading is bordering on waffle.

[sheppsea]

I think grading is similar to EMS, it may help in same cases but is far from a guarantee of quality, and in the case of EMS certainly not worth the premium paid.

In the case of the supplier who does this, AFAIK he doesn't guarantee they are good cigar and is very open in the way he grades them so this certainly isn't attack on him (he also owns another forum that I enjoy posting on and he's seems to be a very nice guy)

In terms of your Monte's, it can be put down to bad luck I think, I also have a box of 4s that have disappointed so far. Some say it is because so many are produced, which I don't necessarily believe but could be the reason

[JoeyGunz]

Presume you're talking about Pres, had great success using his grading system, maybe shoot him a message mate.
What are your storage conditions like?

[RobBooth]

We're off the original topic.....
[MENTION=13402510]ValeTudoGuy[/MENTION] I'm not going to second guess the full extent of their grading policy. I don't expect them to be able to check every stick in every box but so far I've been very happy with their service. [MENTION=13402615]PeeJay[/MENTION] I have no problem with someone opening a box and checking the contents prior to shipping, IMO it reduces the possibility of me receiving a box of sticks which are visibly damaged / inferior.

[RobBooth]

I think grading is similar to EMS, it may help in same cases but is far from a guarantee of quality, and in the case of EMS certainly not worth the premium paid.

In the case of the supplier who does this, AFAIK he doesn't guarantee they are good cigar and is very open in the way he grades them so this certainly isn't attack on him (he also owns another forum that I enjoy posting on and he's seems to be a very nice guy)

In terms of your Monte's, it can be put down to bad luck I think, I also have a box of 4s that have disappointed so far. Some say it is because so many are produced, which I don't necessarily believe but could be the reason

I'm not knocking the supplier, as I've said, I've been very happy with all of the other boxes I've bought and their response to a box I had which were damaged in transit was brilliant. Just seems a bad run of luck with these 4s (so far). The 5s were sourced elsewhere and haven't been good at all.

[RobBooth]

Presume you're talking about Pres, had great success using his grading system, maybe shoot him a message mate.
What are your storage conditions like?

I've been very happy with what I've sourced from him, the 4s have been disappointing but smokeable.
Both 4s and 5s have been stored 65f, 64-68%RH since they arrived. Typically dry box before smoking but didn't with this morning's 5.

[ValeTudoGuy]

Cool, if that's off topic then i have nothing more to add.